Zaha Hadid
Zaha Hadid
Dame Zaha Mohammad Hadid, DBEwas an Iraqi-born British architect. She was the first Arab woman who received the Pritzker Architecture Prize, winning it in 2004. She received the Stirling Prize in 2010 and 2011. In 2012, she was created a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire and in 2015 she became the first woman to be awarded the RIBA Gold Medal in her own right...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionArchitect
Date of Birth31 October 1950
CityBaghdad, Iraq
guy call-me ifs
Would they call me a diva if I were a guy?
hate men views
Contrary to popular view, I've never been patronized in the Middle East. Men maybe treat women differently, but they do not treat them with disrespect. They don't hate women. It's a very different kind of mentality.
museums furniture pedestal
I don't particularly like showing furniture on pedestals, but for whatever reasons you always have to in museums.
today architecture building
It is insufficient for architecture today to directly implement an existing building typology; it instead requires architects to carefully examine the whole area with new interventions and programmatic typologies
reality design ambitious
I am equally proud of all of my architectural projects. It's always rewarding to see an ambitious design become reality.
crazy mean sleep
When you are overworked and exhausted, there is a sense of kind of delirium and that's why I think architects do all-nighters and they kind of do those deadlines. For four days I remember doing four nights in one row with no sleep. I mean nobody, unless you are crazy, would do that, but you are totally focused on the project.
thinking ideas design
I've always thought that design can have equal importance to the idea of internal architecture. Professionally, things can be very dogmatic - you do the architecture, someone else does the interiors, someone else does the furniture, the fabric, etc. But I think design is all-encompassing.
success talking shoes
When women do succeed, the press, even the industry press, spend far too much time talking about how we dress, what shoes we're wearing, who we're meant to be seeing. That's pretty sad for women, especially when it's written by women who really should know better.
believe ideas
I really believe in the idea of the future.
eccentric
I am eccentric, I admit it, but I am not a nutcase.
jobs people important
Good education is so important. We do need to look at the way people are taught. It not just about qualifications to get a job. It's about being educated.
smart inspiration feminist
Yes, I'm a feminist, because I see all women as smart, gifted and tough.
girl guy mind
I used to not like being called a 'woman architect.' I'm an architect, not just a woman architect. The guys used to tap me on the head and say 'you're OK for a girl.' But I see an incredible amount of need from other women for reassurance that it can be done, so I don't mind anymore.
fashion space architecture
Architecture is how the person places herself in the space. Fashion is about how you place the object on the person.